Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Is CPS Inflating Attendance Records For Cash?

You can either watch this video or read the write-up from CBS2:
Your tax dollars are paying to educate kids who are not even in school.

CBS 2's Dave Savini investigates allegations that officials at Chicago Public Schools may be altering school attendance records to get more government aid.

Terrence Figures was enrolled as a senior last year at B.E.S.T. High School, formerly known as James H. Bowen High School, but he says he dropped out. That is when he became a "ghost student."
...
The problem may not be limited to B.E.S.T. Paula Adams, a former Local School Council member at Steinmetz Academic Centre High School, and Sammy Tenuta, a former security guard at the same school, both claim Steinmetz also had numerous ghost students.

"They keep them on the books to receive federal funding," Tenuta claims.

Both he and Adams say that back in 2007, they found more than 100 ghost students, yet no action or discipline was ever taken against whoever may have been altering the records.

"I see our tax dollars being wasted," said Adams.

Eugene Hill, a former B.E.S.T. High School teacher, says he thinks the practice is "rampant" throughout Chicago schools.

He says administrators inflate enrollment to get more money and save teachers' jobs. He claims 10 percent of B.E.S.T. was truant yet marked present. Hill said that students who were not in school would be marked "present" or "SF," which means they were on a school function or field trip.
Via Newsalert!

1 comment:

  1. The principal Camilla Covington is still in charge at the high school. I met with the Inspector General Linda Brown on June 15. I personally gave her all the information she needed to move forward on these charges yet nothing has happened. CPS is trying to cover up this fraud and corruption. Camilla Covington and Vice-Principal Roberto Paredes should be fired.

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